Dallas Area Home Prices Are Still Headed Higher
Dallas had the biggest price gains in more than a year in the latest nationwide comparison. But local data shows home costs increasing at an even faster rate. Dallas-area home prices were up 3.2% in the just-released S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Index. That was less than the 4.8% nationwide home price hike in July compared with a year earlier. But reports from local real estate agents found that median home sales prices in North Texas were actually 9% higher in July and August than a year earlier, according to the latest data from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
The bump in local home price gains comes as a flood of buyers hit the market for properties hoping to take advantage of record low mortgage rates.
“Housing prices rose in July,” S&P’s Craig J. Lazzara said in the new Case-Shiller report. He said that home prices “rose at an accelerating pace in July compared to June.The strength of the housing market was consistent nationally.”
The largest gains were in Phoenix, up 9.2%, Seattle, which was 7% higher than a year earlier. “Prices were particularly strong in the Southeast and West regions, and comparatively weak in the Midwest and Northeast,” Lazzara said.
Case-Shiller’s survey tracks the sales prices of specific homes over time. It does not include new construction.
The inventory of homes for sale in the area is down 45% from this time in 2019.
Zillow economist Matthew Speakman provided some perspective:
“Home prices continued to push pandemic-related uncertainties aside and reach new heights into the summer months as demand for housing outpaced supply,” Speakman said in a statement. "An unprecedented lack of for-sale homes combined with persistently low mortgage rates have stoked a competition for housing in recent months that will not relent..."
